Video: Publishing to the iPhone or iPad

Here we are going to take a look at how we can use the Publish Services feature, or Publish Services panel, inside of the Library module in order to publish and export our photos from Lightroom to an external device, like an iPhone or an iPad. Now, before we actually start to work in Lightroom, we need to step out of Lightroom for a few minutes to set a few things up. We need to create a folder, and then we need to tell iTunes to look at a particular folder to say, "Hey, this is where I'm going to put these images." So, let's go ahead and start that process, and first, let's hide Lightroom.

In Photoshop Lightroom 3 Advanced Techniques, photographer Chris Orwig shows how to master the subtleties of Lightroom 3 and maximize its efficiency. The course begins with an in-depth exploration of Lightroom catalogs to keep track of photos, collections, keywords, stacks, and more. Along the way, Chris shows how to integrate Bridge and Photoshop in the Lightroom workflow and shares advanced techniques, including image editing with the adjustment brush, automating actions, using plug-ins and extensions, exporting to email or an FTP server, and more. Exercise files are included with the course.

Topics include:

Maximizing file compatibility

Speeding up the workflow with automation

Working with catalogs, collections, and folders

Diagramming multiple catalogs and computers

Performing and restoring backups

Setting up tethered capture

Advanced retouching techniques, such as eye enhancement and blemish reduction

Publishing to the iPhone or iPad

Here we are going to take a look at how we can use the Publish Servicesfeature, or Publish Services panel, inside of the Library module in order topublish and export our photos from Lightroom to an external device, like an iPhone or an iPad.Now, before we actually start to work in Lightroom, we need to step out ofLightroom for a few minutes to set a few things up.We need to create a folder, and then we need to tell iTunes to look at aparticular folder to say, "Hey, this is where I'm going to put these images."So, let's go ahead and start that process, and first, let's hide Lightroom.

Here you can see I have this folder on my Desktop.It's titled "iphone."Inside of that folder, I've created some subfolders.You want to create these subfolders in a way to group or organize your photographs.It could be by different types of portfolios, or subject matter--you name it.It's really up to you how you want to organize things.But do keep in mind that whatever you name these files here, those namingconventions and that structure there will show up on your iPhone or iPad whenyou go to browse those photos.All right, well, the next thing that you need to do is to open up iTunes and toconnect your device.

Now, when you connect your device-- like I've connected the iPhone 4 here--youthen want to go to the Photos folder, and what we want to do is sync photos from that folder.So, what you can do is choose that folder. And here I'll go to my Desktop> iphone > Choose, and then I can select which folders I actually want to synchronize.In this case, I'm selecting all of them. Or you can always click on All folders this way.That being said, sometimes I like to just see the folder list, because it helpsme remember how many images I have in each folder, what I'm actually doing, whatI'm working on, and it just gets me in that zone.

All right. Well, now that we've set up our folder, and now that we haveiTunes set up to synchronize these particular folders, we're ready to go back to Lightroom.Back inside of Lightroom, what we want to do is create a Publish Service to our Hard Drive.We're going to create a Publish Service to a particular folder.So, let's click Set Up.This will open up our Lightroom Publishing Manager.Now, the first thing that we want to do is give this a name.I'll go ahead and call this one travel. And the travel photos are going to beexported to a specific folder, and we'll choose that folder.

You already know what it is, right?We're going to go to iphone and travel.All right. So far, so good.We don't need to put these in a subfolder, just in that main folder there.Naming convention, we'll leave those as is.Now, what about our format?Now, typically what you want to do for your format is you want to choose a JPEGin an sRGB Color Space, and you want to crank your quality really high--something about 75 or above.Here I'm going to choose 80, so I just have a really nice high-quality file.In regards to the image sizing, this is where things get a little bit interesting.

One of the ways that you can find some information about how to size things isto go to the actual site, which carries the device that you're exporting for.Here I'm going to pull up my web browser, and you can see that I'm on the Specspage for the iPhone 4.In this case, down near the bottom of the page, it says the resolution is960 x 640, at 326 pixels per inch.In comparison, if we go to the Specifications page for the iPad, we can scrolldown and find that this is 1024 x 768, at 132 pixels per inch.

So, what you want to do is just keep those numbers in mind.And here, let's say we're exporting for the iPhone.Well, write down 960 x 640 at 326.Now, you could, of course, export these at a higher resolution, and that couldbe helpful so that you could zoom in on an image in order to focus in on a particular detail.All right. Well, let's go ahead and head back to Lightroom now that we knowthose figures there.In Lightroom, we're going to resize, and typically what you'll do is the longestedge. And you remember, our longest edge was 960,so I'll go ahead and choose 960. And then the Resolution that we saw there was 326.

So we're just going to match the resolution of this device and have thisreally nice file size matching the pixel dimension and the resolution for this particular device.Now, for Output Sharpening, typically what you want to do is Sharpen ForScreen and use Standard.I find that that works best.We don't need any metadata.Watermarking, probably not a good idea, because on your deviceit's really a little mini portfolio that you're going to use to show people images,so there's no need for watermarking there.Well, once we've done all these things, we probably want to go back and justdouble-check. Make sure we're going to the correct folder. Make sure we have ourFile Settings correct, Image Sizing, Output Sharpening. Great!This is really good.

So, what I'm going to do is go ahead and save this out.So I'll click on Save, and what this will do is it will give me this littleconnection here, or this little Publish Service folder.Now, this is just one Publish Service folder.This would then allow me to include a folder on my iPhone, which is calledtravel, and I could then add photos to it.So let's say that I have two photos I want to add.I'll hold down the Command key on a Mac, Ctrl key on Windows, and I'll click onone, two, three, four--however many photos I want to included here. And thenI'll drag these to this particular location in Publish Services.

Now, I can drag images from all different hard drives, all different folders ordifferent collections--the sky is the limit there.Basically though, you just want to drag and drop those into this location.Well, you can click on this in order to see what you have there.I have these two files,so in that situation, you then click Publish.What this will then do is it will publish these photos.Now, Publish is a little bit of an interesting term, because what's actuallyhappening is it's just exporting the files.It's just going through those settings, converting it to sRGB, JPEG at an 80quality setting, at those particular dimensions and resolution.

And if we go back to our Finder for a moment, what we'll see here is--if we hidethese momentarily--is that inside of this little travel folder, we now havethese two files, and it shows us these.In this case, they're pretty small;this is about 400K and this one as well.It's only about 700K.Now, you may want to experiment a little bit with your file size.It depends on how many photos you're actually going to include on your device.But in this case, with my device, you can see it's pretty new.I don't have a lot of content on here,so I'm pretty good to go. And these are really small file sizes,so I could add tons and tons of photos.

All right. Well, once I've done all that, I would go back to my iTunes library,and here I'm going to click to apply these settings.Once I've applied those settings, it will then synchronize this, and here youcan see that it's synchronizing this.It copied those two photos up to my iPhone.All right, well, what about some of these other folders, like portraits or family?What you want to do in those situations is go back to Lightroom, go back toyour Publish Services, and here, click on the Plus icon and choose Go toPublishing Manager.

This will open up this dialog again.What I want to do is add another connection here.So, I'm going to call this one "family."Next, you'll notice that it remembered my same settings here:JPEG, sRGB, that Quality setting, also the Image Size.If we go back up to the top, the only thing to change is the export location,and let me select that family folder there. That looks good.I'll save this one out. Click Save. That will close.We'll now have another connection.

How that could help is I could then go to some other folders here, and what Icould do is select one of these images, drag that to my family folder, and nowI'm just going to bring a couple of those over.I could also, of course, go to some other folders.For example, let's say I go to my people folder, and here, I have anotherphotograph of my daughter Annika. I'll bring that into this location, and thenI'll click on this family here.If I go to the G key, I can see the Grid View.The Grid View shows me I have some new photos to publish.There is three here.

In this case, simply click Publish, and it will show me the progress of this. Again, converting these to those parameters or settings that we dialed in, and there it is.All those photos have now successfully been published.If we hide this for a moment, what we'll see is--if we go back to our littleFinder window here--that we now have new photos inside of this family folder,and here are those new photos.Back to iTunes. We're kind of round tripping here, right? And we'll justsynchronize this, and what this would do then is it would copy those three photosand also that folder, of course, to the iPhone.

All right, we'll back to Lightroom for a moment. Just in closing, I thoughtit'll be helpful to point out that once you set it up, you'll never have to do this again.That's a beauty of this, that you'll have this set up, and then you can quicklyand easily add photographs to your mobile device.

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